Chinese Chowin' Down

So for the last week of our homeschool unit on the Olympics we have been studying China. This has been a really interesting week for me too, and I learned tons of stuff I never knew before. I never understood before why China embraced communism so fully, anyways. We learned lots of fun stuff and decided to have a family Chinese food dinner with my Grandparents so the boys could tell them all about their week. I have never made much in the way of Chinese food myself before, but we gave it the old college try. We made this totally yummy Mongolian Beef from the http://www.bloggingitswhatsfordinner.blogspot.com/ blog. I also branched out and made egg rolls, they were so easy I can't believe I never made them before. We also tried out these Asian pork dumplings from the Pillsbury Bake Off recipe book. The whole dinner was so much fun, if a lot of work. My grandparents loved it, and after Alec and Dean prattled on about China for an hour my Grandma is finally off my case about homeschooling! =)








Wendy Ko Walnut Creek, CA
Bake-Off® Contest 43, 2008








INGREDIENTS
1 1/4
lb lean ground pork
1
can (8 oz) sliced or whole water chestnuts, drained, coarsely chopped
1
box (9 oz) Green Giant® frozen spinach, thawed, squeezed to drain
12
medium green onions, thinly sliced (about 3/4 cup)
2
tablespoons soy sauce
1
teaspoon granulated garlic or garlic powder
3/4
teaspoon ground ginger
3/4
teaspoon white pepper or black pepper
2
Eggland's Best eggs
2
cans (16.3 oz each) Pillsbury® Grands!® Flaky Layers refrigerated original biscuits (8 biscuits each)
1 1/2
cups sweet-and-sour sauce or sweet-spicy chili sauce
DIRECTIONS
1.
Heat oven to 350°F. In large bowl, mix all ingredients except biscuits and sweet-and-sour sauce.
2.
Remove 1 can of biscuits from refrigerator just before filling (keep remaining can of biscuits refrigerated). Separate each biscuit into 3 layers. Press each layer into 3 1/2-inch round, being careful not to tear dough.
3.
Spoon 1 rounded tablespoon of pork filling on center of each dough round. Bring all sides of dough up over filling, stretching gently if necessary, and gather in center above filling to form a dumpling; press gathered dough to seal. On ungreased large cookie sheet, place 24 dumplings 2 inches apart.*
4.
Bake 17 to 27 minutes or until thermometer inserted in center reads 160°F** and sides and tops of dumplings are golden brown. Repeat to make remaining dumplings. Serve warm with sweet-and-sour sauce.
**Due to the natural nitrate content of certain ingredients such as onions, the pork filling may remain pink even though pork is cooked to 160°F. *To make ahead, cover and refrigerate unbaked dumplings on cookie sheet up to 2 hours before baking.
High Altitude (3500-6500 ft): No change.
Eggland's Best is a registered trademark of Eggland's Best, Inc.

Wasting Time....

So several of my friends have these fun memory posts up right now. You know, the ones where you are supposed to leave any fun memories you have with that person, and as such I have been taking a stroll down memory lane today. Of course I am supposed to be teaching a card making class tomorrow morning for enrichment, and I haven't even started making my samples yet. So I am blog stalking because I can't seem to function properly unless I am in some kind of procrastination-induced time crunch! But back to the point of this post...I was thinking about all the unbelievably stupid and ridiculous things I used to do. And then I realized that I still do lots of stupid and ridiculous things.......and then I realized that I am now the mom. The idea of this scares the hell out of me. When I was younger I saw my Mom as this reasonable and sensible creature that always seemed to know just what to do and how to go about it. I am now wondering if she put on a really good show, or if she really was as together as I thought. Because I am not a "together" kind of person, I think I must enjoy flying by the seat of my pants because I seem to do it on a regular basis. I know this is an odd post, kind of a stream of consciousness kind of thing, but does anyone else ever feel this way?

I've been tagged!

The rules of this tag are to list: 3 Joys, 3 Fears, 3 Current Goals, 3 Current Obsessions, 3 Random Facts about myself.

3 Joys

1. My Family. 2. Working in my garden. 3. Reading

3 Fears

1. Messing up my children. 2. Fire (goes with having a husband that was a firefighter; I was forbidden to see Ladder 49). 3. Snakes

3 Current Goals

1. Teaching Dean to read well and Alec multiplication facts ( that is actually two but they are in the same category). 2. Daily scripture study ( I am horrible at this, but getting better). 3. Exercise 5 days a week.

3 Current Obsessions

1. Playing Bridge. 2. Trying new recipes that I have found on fun blogs. 3. Yoga

3 Random Facts

1. I make the best Chocolate Chip Cookies ever! 2. I drove my car across my front yard trying to chase away a rabbit that was eating my new little sunflower sprouts. 3. I like to sing at the top of my lungs in the car.

Refugees

Well we had a successful week in Phoenix! When Rodger and I worked out our current living situation we agreed that I would spend one week per month in the valley, but from my side that couldn't possibly include the summertime. For one thing I feel like I live in paradise here in the mountains during the summer and trading the wonderful lazy days here for the scorching heat of the valley was just not a option. But I have been feeling guilty so we decided to go last week. We did enjoy ourselves while we were there, mostly due to the fact that we spent the vast majority of our time in the pool. The other exciting thing was we finally found a Wii! Some of you know we have been looking to buy a wii for several months now, but I refused to pay the inflated bundle prices online, and we don't have anyone that carries them around here. So I stalked retailers all over the valley, and finally came up with one. My personal fav is the boxing. We even took it over to my Mom's house one night for a family game night. Ah, good times! When we finally packed up and hit the road to come home I felt like refugees fleeing Hell. I have no idea how I managed to spend 85% of my life in that heat.

Alec getting ready to push off.

Dean is making a "splash" for me. He can finally swim but still prefers not to go underwater if he can help it.



The boys totally absorbed in the wii. Alec loves the one game that doesn't require a lot of movement.

This is Dean boxing!